If you had thirty years to save Earth before space algae ate your sun, how would you do it? Ryland Grace, a middle school science teacher, is mysteriously recruited as a scientific operative to save the world. When Ryland Grace's old scientific paper, once snubbed by the scientific community, is found by the woman who is responsible for saving the world, he is recruited and given no choice in the matter. At first, acting as a guinea pig, he begins to explore the mysterious substance and the alien life form that is a threat not only to Earth, he finds out, but to the universe. It is up to him and a small group of scientists to defend the Earth and the universe at large from this new life form.
Artistry and Craft
I went into this book blind. All I had for an idea of the novel was that it was being made into a movie, and it was loved by many people despite their usual preferences for reading, gathering different genre readers for an experience all could enjoy and find value in.
So with that information, I borrowed my brother's copy of the book and curled up in my room. 100 pages into the book, if you had asked me how I was liking it so far, I would have said I was struggling; “if this doesn’t get good soon, I’m done.” I’ve read books with long “warm-ups” before, think of a 2,000-page Brandon Sanderson "tome" or the classics that start off with one-way correspondence for the first fifty pages, so I was used to long introductions and setups. What I wasn’t used to was the scientific, dense beginning. I don’t mean "dense" in a linguistic, philosophical, or psychological way; rather, those areas are basic at best, or difficult to find in the text at worst. Instead, the sheer amount of scientific terminology overlaid a seemingly flat plot. It left me feeling like I was supposed to be more emotionally attached to the high stakes right off the bat.
Oddly enough, for a book that involves such a high-stakes narrative, what brought me into the story and kept me invested was the first piece of dry humour and sarcasm from the main character. All of a sudden, I was involved with who the character was; he became real to me rather than just someone who moves the story along. Suddenly, he became an endearing and somewhat admirable character to me, maybe providing some sort of feeling of camaraderie. From that point on, I began to get gradually more invested until I found myself completely captured by the unexpected twists and the redemption story. Overall, I enjoyed this book, even though the first third was difficult.
Project Hail Mary is pure sci-fi, hard sci-fi, which means that it doesn't have any fantasy aspects; rather, everything in the world can be explained by science. The prose is basic, and at first it takes a while to get used to the scientific language, but anyone who has taken any high school science course should be able to follow along. One of the downsides of the scientific jargon is that at first, it reads like a textbook reformatted into a fiction book. Just like with understanding the scientific language, it is easy enough to get into the “groove” of how the story is written, and eventually become more engaged because of the other elements of the story. The book is interesting to read in the way it cuts back and forth between the main character, Ryland's, present reality and the past.
While Project Hail Mary struggles with a dense, slow opening, its character development and relational growth aspects ultimately make it a interesting sci-fi read. ★★★.5
Themes and Messages
There is a huge theme of friendship and connection, as well as the risk it takes to create and maintain those relationships. This is a personal struggle for the main character, something he is faced with overcoming and facing head-on.
The concept of bravery is also explored. It begs the question of where bravery comes from and how it is developed. The book asks the question of whether bravery is only choosing to do the right thing even when afraid.
Another significant theme is redemption, which carries the story from start to finish, even if the reader only realizes it later because of the nature of the novel. The redemption feels human: not easy and not instant. Instead, the integration of past failure and choosing to move toward redemption through the character's natural wants, even if scary, brings the redemption full circle. ★★★.5
Final Thoughts
Project Hail Mary was a decent book that I found more interesting as I pushed myself to read it. It wasn’t an easy read for me, and I had a lot of trouble getting into it. However, if the story were simply about space travel and high stakes, I don't believe I would have enjoyed this book at all. It was the character growth and the relationships that truly saved the story for me.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in hardcore sci-fi, or those wanting to get into specifically hardcore sci-fi, and is a reader who loves a high-stakes book. Overall, my rating of Project Hail Mary is three and a half stars out of five.
Content Discretion:
Includes scenes of intense peril, science-based violence, mature language, and brief discussions of adult themes. Best suited for mature high school readers and up.
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